Wild and Wicked Things: The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller and Tiktok Sensation

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But she never expected her enigmatic new neighbour to be a witch. After witnessing a confrontation between her best friend Bea and the infamous Emmeline Delacroix at one of Emmeline’s extravagantly illicit parties, Annie is drawn into a glittering haunted world. A world where magic can buy what money cannot; a world where the consequence of a forbidden blood bargain might be death. The plot didn’t feel as exciting as I hoped it would. I was expecting intrigue from the romance, danger and suspense from the plot, and generally just a lot more intensity? I was promised a “bloodthirsty, glittering world” and most of what I got was Annie being indecisive and Emmeline being stressed. I wish there had been more world-building; while the history of the world and such was well established, the magic system felt very ambiguous, and even a little more explanation would have made the plot and stakes clearer and everything make a bit more sense. While I recognize that this was likely part of the atmosphere that the author was attempting to create, I think that this particular category of withheld information was a poor choice on May’s part. I was promised something “bloodthirsty and glittering” which wasn’t quite what I received, but it was very close and definitely enjoyable enough to make up for it. The plot development is done very carefully and methodically, with no piece of information introduced any sooner than it needs to be. It’s very skillful, even if it does mean that there are events or plot points that are confusing for a chapter or two before being explained, and it serves to add to the mysterious and unknown aspects of the world itself.

A deep, sensuous exploration of the bonds between three very different, complex women that readers won't soon forget." — Gwenda Bond, New York Times bestselling authorWhen it comes to the characters, there are three main characters and three important secondary characters. The problem I had is that I found I only cared a little about one character. I’m okay with flawed characters, but their flaws where so played up that I started not to like them. The characters refused to communicate, never wanted to except help, and just always made things worse. They would say nasty things to each other, meant to hurt, and either ‘I’m sorry’ didn’t happen or they did but seemed forced. Can I really root for these characters and even a slow burn sapphic romance when I don’t care for most of them? This tale alternates between Annie and Emmeline’s perspective with a few others here and there. The writing style is very atmospheric and captures the era well. WAWT had so much potential with its subject matter but it basically just ended up being a forced mash up of Practical Magic and Great Gatsby mixed with the randomness of the film Shutter Island. I don’t understand why. Maybe it was my mental state, maybe I wasn’t in the mood, but I’m almost 74% sure it wasn’t actually the book’s fault that I couldn’t enjoy it.

Firstly what I liked. There were some truly creepy moments and the action scenes were exciting and well written. All the elements - Great Gatsby, witchy, dark magic, LGBTQ+ rep - really got me excited, but I just could never get into the read. Now I really liked Annie and Emmeline. Bea, unfortunately, took me a while to get on board with. She just really frustrated me for most of the book. It's like she didn't want to deal with the consequences of her decisions and blamed everyone else when things went bad. Eventually she got better but I really liked everyone else way more. Bea, much like Daisy in Gatsby, is an intentionally frustrating character—one who whines and moans and justifies her horrific decisions because Love. Like Daisy, Bea also takes no action on her own to fix her situation but relies on Annie and Emmeline to enable her and fix her mistakes. Those two, however, make all the wrong choices, and things get worse in a Practical Magic-like fashion, building up to a dark and stormy climax near the end.

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For example, the moments (especially near the end) where the characters were in danger. I would usually find myself thinking, “well if they’re witches, couldn’t they just do x” or “why don’t they just y” and then learn more about the world-building and character flaws through their limitations.